Reply To: Plan B for Focus Fusion

[ikanreed]

Steven Sesselmann wrote: For the amusement of lateral thinking minds only…

How would it be if we were to do a complete rewrite of physics and cosmology, discard everything we know and believe, and look at everything with fresh eyes?

For what we have created over the past 2000 years is a monstrous patchwork of theories, a huge jigsaw of pieces that don’t fit together.

Newtonian physics
Einsteins Relativity
Quantum Theory
Big Bang
Black Holes
Gravity
Strong Interaction
Weak Interaction
Electric force
Quarks
Protons
Neutrons
Electrons
Bosons
Leptons
…and the rest of the Zoo

These terms may be absolutely meaningless, yet we cling to them out of fear, that all our studies and past papers written might be wasted. More than enough scientists have been recruited to complete the puzzle, yet it is plain obvious that the pieces don’t fit. The best contenders create theories with such complexity that no one can disprove them, so we award them a nobel price instead.

Imagine if we could somehow erase all knowledge of the current physics theories, without erasing our knowledge of experimental outcome, how would we explain the world.

I am almost certain that it would not come out the same.

Dare to think…

Steven

Very unlikely(except if certain kinds of experiments become possible). Physics is not a patchwork because new theories are hard to propose(brane and string theory come to mind), but rather because the mathematical commonality between major branches is very limited. Also, as far as I’m aware, the only divided theories are the standard model and special relativity, and that most of what you just listed falls in the former’s domain. Your allegation that physicists stick to existing models out of fear completely misses the point of the scientific method. Special relativity has been an untested theory for 50 years, then 5 years ago, they launch a satellite, and we have falsifiability, and not only that, the theory is born out by the experimental results.

If your erasure happened, we’d end up in a very similar place with different names for things. It’s hard to look at the chemistry experiments and not instantly arrive on the notion of atoms and electrons, which sets you on a natural course for finding subatomic particles. There are very few things that are basically explained from ignorance. The supernova data that suggests an expanding universe, the redshift that suggests an acceleration, and the common wavelengths in the background radiation of the universe. The big bang + dark matter + dark energy is a pretty compelling theory to explain those phenomena, but impossible to verify.

You dare us to consider the implications of modern physics being misguided. I dare you to consider the implications of it being dead on.